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Saturday, September 28, 2013

Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher

Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopheris
not a game that took the office by storm, but rather a game I stumbled
upon, while searching for another game on the Kongregate portal. I ended
up playing it throughout the workday yesterday.

It's basically a knock-off of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Or maybe it's more of an homage, instead of a knock-off. You play as
Socrates Jones, an accountant from NYC. In his family of philosophy
buffs, he's the black sheep -- utterly clueless about any and all
philosophical notions -- that is, until he and his daughter are
transported to the "Intelligent Realm" via a car crash.

The
"Intelligent Realm" is like the afterlife to which great thinkers are
transported after they die. Or maybe it's more like a purgatory?
Socrates' daughter, Ariadne, isn't quite dead, just in a coma. She's
free to go back to the realm of the living; Socrates isn't so lucky.

Instead,
Ariadne proposes that her father debate the Arbiter of the Intelligent
Realm on the origin of morality. Should Socrates win the debate to the
Arbiter's satisfaction, then both Socrates and his daughter may leave
the Realm. Should Socrates lose...then they both must remain in the
Realm forever.

Armed only with the basic weapons of a philosopher
-- asking for clarification; prompting an opponent to support their
statement with evidence; questioning a statement's relevancy; and
drawing attention to fallacies -- Socrates (and the player) "battle"
famous philosophers on the points of well-known theories in ethics/moral
philosophy.

If
this game had existed when I was in 12th grade, I probably would have
done better in my high school philosophy class. Or at least I would have
not regretted dropping organic chem for philosophy. In that sense, I
completely identified with sense of utter confusion demonstrated by
Socrates Jones, even though I was at least vaguely familiar with the
material. Still, it took me about 4 hours to get through the game. If
philosophy is your bag, it might take you less time. But then again, you
probably already know all this stuff. It mostly sticks to basic intro
to ethics material.

It's a lot of clicking and reading, but so are the Ace Attorney
games. The dialogue has its moments of brilliance and the portrayals of
the famous philosophers (e.g. Hobbes is kind of a pompous asshole and
Kant is kind of a...weirdo) is also amusing.

Anyway,
if you've ever dreamed of slapping a dead western philosopher in the
face, while shouting "NONSENSE!" as you pick apart his argument, then Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher is kind of like the GTA:V of philosophy-themed games.